Catching Up, pt. 2: Time of Love

It is at this point in my recounting of the past week that I can talk about my little endeavor into the cinematic realm. It was on last Wednesday that we were having our friends, Jaroslav and Tanya, over for a goodbye dinner. Since we were in the process of moving, we decided to buy a couple of frozen pizzas (at the store in Tver, would could buy Freschetta pizzas, a brand we used to buy in St. Louis). Additionally, I also had to buy some baby food and cleaning supplies, and as I was looking for applesauce for David, a woman carrying a heart-shaped balloon came up to me and asked me something really quickly. Figuring that she worked at the store and was trying to offer some kind of product, I said to her (in Russian) “If you can tell me that in English, I will listen.” Usually, this is a good way to end these types of conversations, but this girl was determined. She began to explain to me, in Russian and English (unfortunately), that they were making a TV show about love called “Love Time” or “Time of Love” (this was a Valentine’s Day Themed Show), and they wanted me to come talk about it.

I can’t say that I was too excited about this, especially thinking that I would have to do this in RUSSIAN. For sure, I didn’t have any idea of how to talk about, as they told me, “Your feelings about love, your philosophy of love, and Valentine’s Day.” UGH. Nothing like stumbling over your words and making a fool of yourself, but even worse when trying to do it in another language! Well, they told me that I could do it in BOTH languages, if I wanted, but I finally insisted that if I was going to do it, English it was to be. Thankfully, they relented, though they did make me say some things in Russian like “Hi Tver from California!” and other such phrases: I am pretty sure that sealed the fact that I was on TV, seeing that I am from California, the place EVERY foreigner knows within America. Thankfully, the process was pretty painless, and ended relatively quickly.